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The Great Wall of China

A Reading A–Z Level M Leveled BookWord Count: 557

WritingImagine you have just visited the Great Wall of China. Write an email to your teacher describing your experience and explaining what you learned during your trip.Social StudiesThe Great Wall is known as a sleeping dragon. Create a map of the Great Wall, making it look like a sleeping dragon. Include a compass rose and map key on your map.

Connections

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LEVELED BOOK • M

Written by Curtis Thomas

The Great Wall of China

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What makes the Great Wall of China so impressive?

Focus Question

Written by Curtis Thomas

The Great

Wall of China

The Great Wall of ChinaWorld Landmarks Level M Leveled Book© Learning A–ZWritten by Curtis Thomas

All rights reserved.

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bordercontinentharmony

landmarksmortarprotect

Words to Know

Front cover: Parts of the Great Wall go across rough mountainous areas.

Title page: British artist Angus McBride made this painting to show what building the Great Wall might have looked like.

Page 3: The Great Wall was built long ago to protect Chinese people from outsiders.

Photo Credits:Front cover, pages 4, 7 (top), 12: © Hung_Chung_Chih/iStock/Thinkstock; back cover, page 13 (bottom inset): © Jf123/Dreamstime.com; title page: © Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images; page 3: © VirginStock/iStock/Thinkstock; page 6 (top): © Rod Porteous/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis; page 6 (bottom): © Xiaoyang Liu/Corbis; page 7 (bottom): © Kelly-Mooney Photography/Corbis; page 8: © Imaginechina/Corbis; page 10: © Zhang YuanGeng/123RF; page 11: © Wolfgang Kaehler/Corbis; page 13 (main): © REX USA/Gordon Sinclair/The Travel Library; page 13 (top inset): © Roussel Bernard/Alamy; page 14: © Dennis Degnan/Corbis; page 15: © Chang Keyong/Panorama/The Image Works

CorrelationLEVEL M

L1924

Fountas & PinnellReading Recovery

DRA

3The Great Wall of China • Level M

Table of Contents

The Longest Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A Dragon Sleeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

The Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Enemies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Visitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

How Long Is It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4

The Great Wall of China was built to follow the curves of the land.

The Longest Wall

The longest wall in the world twists and turns across the continent of Asia . The Great Wall of China is one of the most amazing landmarks on our planet . It’s also the biggest reason people visit China .

5

YELLOW SEA

CHINA

Inner Mongolia

The Great Wall of China

BeijingH

MONGOLIA

sections of the Great WallInner Mongolia border

Key

The Great Wall of China • Level M

A Dragon Sleeps

People built the walls that make up the Great Wall along China’s northern border . They wanted to keep out enemies and protect China .

Many people in China think of land as a living thing . They say the Great Wall is like a sleeping dragon . The wall is curved instead of straight to flow in harmony with the land .

Jaiyu Mountain Pass(western end of

Great Wall)

Hushan Great Wall(eastern end of

Great Wall)

150 km (93 mi.)

6

From mountain sections in the west (top), the wall makes its way across China. In the east, the wall ends in the Yellow Sea (bottom).

The tail of the dragon is in a desert . The head is next to a sea . The dragon’s body passes through many different types of land, including deserts, mountains, farmland, and beaches . Some parts are near Beijing (bay-ZHING), China’s capital .

7

People are allowed to visit parts of the Great Wall that have been taken care of (top). Visitors are not allowed at some sections that are falling apart (bottom).

The Great Wall of China • Level M

The Walls

Many different walls make up the Great Wall . Some sections have broken and been fixed . Other sections have fallen apart .

8

From 2007 until 2009, the Chinese government held events like this one in Beijing. They celebrated that the wall was much longer than they thought.

In China, the wall’s name means the “Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li .” A li (LEE) is about one-half of a kilometer or one-third of a mile . People used to think the wall was ten thousand li long, which is about 5,000 kilometers (3,100 mi .) . Not long ago, scientists used new tools to measure the wall . They found out that the wall is more than four times that long when all the sections are added together!

9

1. Workers built a frame and pounded it full of earth. 2. They built the wall higher. 3. Workers removed the wooden frame.

Hang-tu Construction

1

2

3

The Great Wall of China • Level M

The Materials

Workers used many materials to make the Great Wall . They built early sections using a way of building called hang-tu . Workers set up a frame made of wood or bamboo . Next, they poured a layer of earth inside . Workers packed down the earth . Then, they added more layers and packed them down to form a tall wall .

10

This section of the wall is two hours north of Beijing. Bricks weighing about 11 kilograms (25 lb.) were used to make this part of the wall.

Later on, builders covered dirt walls with bricks and stone . They formed the bricks in wooden molds . Then, they baked the bricks in ovens . Builders used stone instead of bricks for parts of the wall that needed to be extra strong . Workers filled the spaces between the bricks and stones with mortar . The mortar was very strong because it was mixed with sticky rice!

11

Early walls were mainly made of earth.

The Great Wall of China • Level M

The Enemies

The Great Wall helped protect Chinese people from their enemies for many years . At first, the enemies were small groups of people who wandered from place to place . Later, walls protected different kingdoms from each other . After China became one country, the wall protected it from enemies to the north .

12

The Badaling (BAH-dah-ling) section of the Great Wall is near Beijing, China’s capital.

Building the Great Wall was fast at some times and slow at other times . When China was in control, Chinese rulers built up the wall . At other times, China was ruled by its enemies and building stopped . Sections of the wall fell apart . Later, when China took back control, workers fixed the wall and built new sections . They used bricks and stone to make the wall stronger .

13The Great Wall of China • Level M

The Great Wall of China

The Simatai (SU-mah-tie) section of the Great Wall is 5.4 kilometers (3.3 mi.) long with thirty-five beacon towers.

Each year, over ten million people come to China to see the Great Wall.

There are an amazing 25,000 watchtowers and 15,000 outposts along the sections of the Great Wall.

• Length: combined total length of all sections about 21,196 kilometers (13,170 mi.); the longest series of structures ever built

• Width: widest section about 9 meters (30 ft.); tallest part of wall is about 8 meters (26 ft.)

• Elevation: lowest point is at sea level; highest point is more than 500 meters (1,600 ft.) in elevation

14

Visitors to the hilly sections of the wall need to be in good shape if they want to hike.

The Visitors

People come to see the Great Wall from all over the world . Most people visit the sections that are close to Beijing . If you go, be prepared to do a lot of walking and climbing . You’ll also want to take many pictures . Be sure to bring a camera!

15

Visitors are not allowed at some sections that are too steep to climb.

The Great Wall of China • Level M

How Long Is It?

You can’t see the Great Wall from the Moon, but it is still amazing . Imagine lining up all the sections in a row . The wall would stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole . That’s a mighty long wall!

16

Glossaryborder (n.) the line that divides one

country or area from another (p . 5)

continent (n.) one of the main divisions of land on Earth, including Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America (p . 4)

harmony (n.) a combination or arrangement of parts that creates a pleasing effect (p . 5)

landmarks (n.) important historical buildings or sites; objects on land that mark a place (p . 4)

mortar (n.) a liquid mixture of materials that hardens as it dries and is used to hold bricks or stones together (p . 10)

protect (v.) to guard or defend from harm or danger (p . 5)